


Miss Lucas Considers Her Options

by Lempo Soi (Lemposoi)



Category: Pride and Prejudice - Austen
Genre: Age of Sail, Community: femslash100, Double Drabble, F/F, Female Characters, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Regency, Regency Romance, Unrequited Love, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-17
Updated: 2010-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemposoi/pseuds/Lempo%20Soi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Impossible love, politely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miss Lucas Considers Her Options

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Femslash100's International Day of Femslash 2010 drabbleathon.

At any point in the past five years Elizabeth Bennet could have convinced Charlotte Lucas not to marry Mr Collins, had she but struck upon the correct argument.  
A single woman has no independence until her parents are deceased, and even at that gloomy prospect she often finds herself stripped of property by the claim of a male relative. Spinsterhood entails uncertainty, to which Charlotte considered herself ill-equipped. By comparison, a manageable husband seemed a reasonable choice.  
Charlotte would, however, sensible as she was, gladly have traded the position of a wife for the position of a spinster, had that but guaranteed love.  
Charlotte adores the muffled echoes of her empty home, and the fresh morning breeze through the poppy leaves outside her window. She dines with the village gentry, and daily walks the lonely pathways between the market and her home. Companionship is not everything.  
When Elizabeth alights from the carriage by her door, Charlotte feels just one splash of violent emotion. Later, at tea, when she can see the question hovering by unsaid, Elizabeth's wondering, it takes all her composure not to--  
She explains, instead, about her quiet joys. Elizabeth's mind, she can tell, is on other people.


End file.
